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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Kingdom Building Part 3: The Anatomy of a Policy

I am going to show you the steps it took to complete a policy in Kingdom Building. I started out by giving the PCs a bunch of Policy Options to pick from.

What the PCs saw:

Establish Domestic Informants * Domestic, InformantModerate ComplexityModerate DifficultyKey Skills: Diplomacy, Insight, Streetwise Success: You will receive regular, general information about events within Cyre. In addition, you will now be able to pursue policies establishing informants close to specific families, political figures, towns and cities, or organizations.Retry: Yes. But each failure makes future establishment of specific informant networks more difficult.

I didn't want the math behind Kingdom Building to be explicit. I decided, arbitrarily, that general policies that could be completed by any Joe in Cyre, would either be Complexity 1, 3, or 5, with Complexity being used as the "how-long should this take" factor. I used "Low Complexity, Moderate Complexity, and High Complexity" language to represent these levels. For character specific policies, only to be completed by my PCs, I decided to only assign High or Low complexity (Complexity 2 or 4) for these policies. For Difficulty, my PCs are level 4, so I decided that a solid moderate challenge would be level 5, and then a deviation of 3 either way (Level 2 for Easy, level 8 for Hard) would give me easy and hard difficulties. I included this list of write-ups in the same document containing the Kingdom Building rules.

Advantages:
1. Success against Streetwise 22 counts as Hard and Moderate success.
2. May Successfully use Streetwise twice per round. Success: You will receive regular, general information about events within Cyre. In addition, you will now be able to pursue policies establishing informants close to specific families, political figures, towns and cities, or organizations.Retry: Yes. But each failure makes future establishment of specific informant networks more difficult.

I decided I would reveal 1 advantage every time a PC attempts the policy, until they've seen every advantage the policy offers. Each advantage can only be used once. I also decided that each PC could use a non-key skill for 1 successful check, and then it would no longer be available. I will probably start giving the PCs this amount of information so I don't have to format two different write-ups for each challenge. I kept this in my secret DM document that also contained my time-line of world events in Eberron.

Things got done in a shared google doc that the PCs used to update each month's actions. The first month looked like this before the PCs updated anything:

Round 1: February 988 YKNews: The fighting along the northern border is brief, and casualties are low. The leader of the northern Cyran army, Duke Corlan ir’Varak is captured. Having lost any element of surprise due to your discovery of their approach, however, the young Prince of Karrnath, Kaius, withdraws his troops, leaving a mighty picket force along the river border.Personal Developments: You receive invitations to the wedding of Lord Leonard ir’Hof to Lady Penelope ir’Stedner. It will take place in March. Much of Cyre’s nobility is invited.Special Actions: None this round.Standing Bonuses: +1 Diplomacy (Half-Elf racial from Istav)PC Actions: Istav ir’Somme Standard: Standard: Minor: Prince Oargev Standard: Standard: Minor: Art (Res Sickness all d20 -1)

Standard: Standard: Minor:

My plan was to give each PC the information for the month that they need up front, remember their bonuses, and publish their actions. I decided against doing any initiative, preferring to have an "all actions take place simultaneously" approach, so I could just update everything at once. Finally, I decided, except in extreme cases where one PC would be out f the country, all PCs would get the benefit of being close to others from the party at all times.

Then the PCs added their actions and I rolled on InvisibleCastle, posting their final rolls and weather or not they were successful. Then various PCs used "Reaction powers (this round, Oargev used both his Master Diplomacy Utility power and his Archetype Action Point Power in order to do some damage control on bad rolls:

Round 1: February 988 YKPC Actions: Istav ir’Somme Minor: Inspire Competence - Choose a skill (Diplomacy) Until the end of the encounter you and each ally get a +2 power bonus to their next check using that skill. Standard: Pursue Establish Diplomatic Credentials (Diplomacy +13) - Schmooze and booze with people at court/on the council in order to curry favor. (+2 bonus from Inspire Competence) Roll=23 Success! Standard: Pursue Establish Diplomatic Credentials (Insight +10) - While schmoozing and boozing, test the waters and gauge the reactions of the Cyran court and council when considering myself for diplomatic credentials. Roll=20 Success! Prince Oargev Standard: Manage the Order of the Prince’s Shield (Diplomacy +8) - Network for list of potential members, gather/vet, and then induct into newly established order. (+2 power bonus from Inspire Competence) Roll=15 Success! Standard: Determine Eligible Bachelorettes (History +8) - Use available resources to research potential marriage partners, and background on their families. Roll=21 Success! Minor: Support “Determine Eligible Bachelorettes” (Diplomacy +8) - While researching, I’ll also be gathering various opinions from trusted sources as to whom to pursue. Roll=11, Reroll with Master's Diplomacy=16 Success!Art (Res Sickness all d20 -1 , Action Point; Support of the Commons +2)

Now, this is NOT the only feedback they got. That would be the worst kind of skill challenge: all roll-playing and no role-playing. Since we're focusing on Art's "Pursue Establish Domestic Informants" policy, I will show you the feedback he got on that policy. This feedback was in a google doc shared only between me and Art's player.

2. May Successfully use Streetwise twice per round. Successes (1 moderate, 1 difficult): February 988 YK: You have discovered and studied a pretty interesting information broker who operates out of Metrol, followed him around, and think that you might be able to impersonate him at a later date to intercept some of his informants.Failures (1/3):February 988 YK: After weeks of asking around Metrol, you relize that many information brokers aren’t interested in sharing territories. You have a few very close calls and have to burn a few throw-away identities, because they weren’t going to make it out of Metrol alive.

And so on for 26 rounds or so, allowing the PCs to accomplish lots of stuff. Eventually, after Art had finished, this moved from "In Progress" to "Completed" and he started getting news concerning secret goings-on around Cyre:

1. Domestic Informants * Domestic, InformantBegan: February 988 YK Owner: ArtCompleted: August 988 YKSuccesses: February 988 YK: You have discovered and studied a pretty interesting information broker who operates out of Metrol, followed him around, and think that you might be able to impersonate him at a later date to intercept some of his informants.April 988 YK: Istav puts a few of your aliases in touch with Barkeeps and Bar wenches who work at key inns and bars in Metrol. Many of them know the sort of people you should be talking to. Also, as you impersonate the information broker, you manage to identify a number of informants throughout the city that you might be able to co-opt with future work.May 988 YK: Your wench network pays off, as they put you in touch with some information brokers that are willing to engage in some information sharing.June 988 YK: You continue to develop your wench network and start to set up some informants in Metrol. July 988 YK: You meet with all of the possible informants you think you can reliably use. They seem eager to get to work, trade favors, and whisper in your ears, however, many of them express concern about what they will do if other rumor mongers and information brokers start having a problem with them infringing on their territory. If you can solve that, your network is ready. August 988 YK: Istav’s conference with all of the information brokers, including the new-kid-on-the-block, Arturo, is successful, and everyone lays out boundaries, turf, price-sets, and mutual help agreements that seem to make everyone happy. Your network is up and running.Failures (2/3): February 988 YK: After weeks of asking around Metrol, you relize that many information brokers aren’t interested in sharing territories. You have a few very close calls and have to burn a few throw-away identities, because they weren’t going to make it out of Metrol alive. March 988 YK: Information brokers in Metrol have started connecting the dots. They are now on the lookout for a Changeling who is trying to make their way in on their territory.Success: Starting in September 988 YK, you will receive news from around Cyre every month. If you would like information on a specific question, spend a minor action to ask it, and you will receive an answer next round.

September 988 YK: You hear rumors that the new Brelish ambassador has been sent here to negotiate an armistice or alliance with Cyre, against Thrane.

October 988 YK: You hear rumors that the Atur Thieves Guild has been having lots of problems moving the weapons they stole and are getting desperate and sloppy. A group of Valenar elves have arrived in town looking for some weapons that were stolen.

November 988 YK: Apparently, the local Sivis station has personally delivered messages to the Brelish Ambassador nearly every day. Something is going on in Breland, and the ambassador needs to be kept abreast of constant developments.

December 988 YK: You hear about a small coalition of lords, mostly minor lords from Metrol, who are wondering what happened to their brothers and sons. They suspect that Prince Oargev lured them into some fool knightly order with stories of Chivalry and Patriotism, and then sent them off to Karrnath to die. No one will answer any of their questions. They are pretty upset.

January 989 YK: Everyone is talking about this new, famous group of adventurers, the Champions of the Bell. You piece together the truth about them: they are agents who work directly for your father as Cyre’s unofficial espionage service. They are led by a Changeling Rogue named Beld, and the other 3 members are Elpeth Padalas, a thief, formally of the Metrol Thieve’s Guild, Duril Kelist, a human arcanist who is obsessed with prohpecies written in the stars, and Gesricar Eight-Fingers, a half-elf swordmage bravo.

February 989 YK: General Brillick is quietly moving Darguun and Cyran troops along the Brelish border, just in case...

March 989 YK: Many of the nation’s leading arcanists are being interviewed by the council in secret. They are being asked questions concerning their knowledge of rituals and unlocking power from ancient sources of eldritch energy.

April 989 YK: Orders and procedures are quietly being put in place among the Brelish check-points and border stations in case the council should decide on a no-travel policy with Breland.

May 989 YK: A number of different sources are being explored to fuel super-powerful eldritch weapons. One is various types of dragonshards imbued with arcane power. Some are researching ways to make residuum batteries with dragonshards. Another option being explored is finding shards of crystal from deep in khyber that have ambient energy from the Daelkyr bound deep beneath the planet. They have many groups trying to harvest ancient giant power-sources from Xen’drik, and some that have already been harvested that they are examining. Finally, they are looking at certain uses of psionically resonant crystals.

June 989 YK: A team of Mror scholars are in Metrol, and they are negotiating for some rare and valuable artifacts. They plan on leaving next month with their purchases.

July 989 YK: Considering the recent troop movements, the council is under pressure to treat travel to Breland the same way they treat travel to Thrane and Karrnath: strictly limited with only official or Dragonmark business allowed.

August 989 YK: The influx of Goblins into Cyre is causing some upflaring of anti-goblin sentiments in the big cities. There have been minor hate-crimes already committed on both sides. It is a matter of time before something major happens.

September 989 YK: Some southern Cyrans who have been most affected by Brelands past incursions into Cyre grumble about the Prince’s wedding to a Brelish woman. They want to know when dealings with Breland have ever really helped Cyre.

October 989 YK: A significant bounty has been put out by Haztar on anyone who has information on his missing artifacts.

November 989 YK: Lord Hof lets you know that he is uncertain how long the Eastern border can hold out. Analyzing the attacks, he’s afraid Karrnath will figure out how to spread them too thin.

December 989 YK: The families of the original Order of the Prince’s shield are talking of refusing to attend the wedding, otherwise, you hear no grumblings.

January 990 YK: The commander of Fort Zombie, called "the Captain of Corpses", has sworn a vow that Fort Bones would be rebuilt by the bones and souls of the Elves and their Cyran Paymasters.

February 990 YK: Someone high in the government is mysteriously smoothing out shipments from Aundair of livestock and exotic building materials, getting them to the eastern border for some unknown reason.

March 990 YK: Breland has started very closely guarding all roads into or out of Cyre. House Orien has, so far, kept them out of the Lightning Rails.

Let me see, from what I listed here:-The story of Duke Vorak's rescue is detailed officially, but not his capture. The Champions of the Bell are mentioned as working as Cyre's unofficial espionage service, so having them serve the Queen's Changeling assistant and "fixer" fit perfectly into Art's history.-Kaius III, per various official timelines, should be a couple years younger than our Oargev, so I used that to paint him as a hot-headed warrior eager to prove himself.-The Thrane-Brelish armistice is mentioned as happening at this point in time, as is the fact that it nearly was a Cyre-Breland alliance before Boranel was spooked by Cyre's massive Warforged build-up (and Queen Dannel's crazy). -The Captain of Corpses and his vow regarding Fort Bones was straight from the book. The fact that Art forged fake orders in order to leave Fort Bones Defenseless so the Battle of the Long Night (cannonical) could happen was pure luck!

And, keep in mind, all of what I put here was just one PCs information feed over the course of this Kingdom Building session. Another PC had an International Information Network and got other private info. Beyond that, all PCs had access to major world news and, in many cases, worked towards MAKING the news.

Oargev married a Brelish woman affecting world events to some degree, Art helped make the Battle of the Long Night happen, Istav brokered a treaty between the Eldeen Reaches and Aundair. They did big things, which I call a success.